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Mk3 play has been going on for about a month now. I have played 8 games or so.

Not enough games to really call it a full playtest really.

The main issue for me is this mk3 void that presents itself right now. Before in Mk2 the meta was formed and changed a bit from time to time but you knew what to build for and what to expect. Now it’s all open and anything goes. Sadly for me, that means out of 8games 6 were hard counters I had no game against with the available lists.

Don’t get me wrong these counters can be answered by the faction and some might be really rare and in no need of a list focus but there’s nothing to indicate you will face those lists or not at all.

Simply put its rock paper scissors but instead of those 3, the options are infinite and you have no clue what option to choose and any option is the best and worst choice at the same time.

That’s how it feels right now. Mostly because I’m always busy with work, sports and other hobbies and having long and deep thoughts about list building just doesn’t happen. In the past I found out what lists were being played with success and I tweaked those to suit me best, saving me a lot of time and research. Since pretty much every player out there is still testing the waters and tweaking lists, that’s not an option right now.

Playing Rahn and Issyria as a list pairing has the disadvantage that both casters like arcing and casting their required spells. For Rahn landing the TK’s at the right moment on the key models is important, for Issy being able to put Blinding light out there is a key element.

When I see a Mercenary list with a dwarven Colossal in it my reflex would be to play issyria and use blinding light to render the ranged capabilities of the colossal inert by applying Blinding light. This is pretty much what it’s for. However one 5 point solo by the name of Orin Midwinter, cancels that plan completely. And as such my Issyria list has no answer to all the shooting in the list.

My Rahn list isn’t suited to deal with this list either as colossals laugh at Rahn and make him a sad panda.

So this would be a hard counter built in that makes my pairing useless if I end up facing any Merc player using a dwarven colossal and Orin (and I’m sure they’ll be buddies most of the time)

Another example is Raseth, who makes arcing within 16″ of him impossible, having the same effect on Issy’s blinding light. If I wanted to stop ranged attacks and limiting Rahns effective range enormously as well. Forming another hard counter to both lists.

Example number 3 was my last game vs Vindictus, whose feat renders all the ranged wpns in Issyrias list useless under his feat, except for 2 shots from Hyperion’s main weapon. In the same turn his army gets into position I have no answer as none of my attacks are allowed and the turn after things charge and I am left with small change and no options to turn the tide.

My rahn list would have to depend on battlemages and rahn + 2 shots from the jacks during that feat turn and I’m not sure it would fare much better at that point.

So 3 situations where both lists would offer no real solid answer at all.

This makes one thing painfully clear, Rahn just like in MK2 has no place in MK3, the counter are endless and he doesn’t present the same skew or doesn’t ask hard questions like other casters.

The Issy list is pretty solid but it needs a pair that can deal with the brutal anti-ranged skews out there.

I will be looking at eVyros next in the hopes of moving into melee territory and hopefully finding that answer, even tough I fear anti-ranged has a twin called armor cracking and it will just stomp that idea as well.

The Vyros2 list I looking like this on paper:

Vyros, Incissar of the Dawnguard – WJ: +27

– Aspis – PC: 6 (Battlegroup Points Used: 6)

– Griffon – PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 8)

– Griffon – PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 8)

– Griffon – PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 5)

– Griffon – PC: 8

– Imperatus – PC: 22

– Griffon – PC: 8

Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress – PC: 3

Arcanist Mechanik – PC: 2

Arcanist Mechanik – PC: 2

Arcanist Mechanik – PC: 2

Dawnguard Invictors – Leader & 9 Grunts: 16

– Dawnguard Invictor Officer & Standard – Officer & Standard: 4

– Soulless Escort – PC: 1

Heavy Rifle Team – Leader & Grunt: 4

The HRT is there to have some form of ranged dmg output which can dent something with heavier armor and doesn’t need help hitting.

Lanyssa will have to be tested out, maybe she’s a good addition, maybe I will want to swap her out after a few games, we’ll see how reliably I can use her hunters mark.

The soulless is a point filler really and it does make it slightly harder to remove the invictors with spells, plus disbinding could come in handy.

The rest of the list pretty much explains itself, cheap Griffons, imperatus for the heavy lifting and an aspis to give Vyros that extra bit of protection from ranged.

The HRT is a personal touch and just like Lanyssa I will need to evaluate how much value I get out of it. But if really want to play the HRT in MK3 and this seemed like a good spot to drop it in for the time being.

I have heared the pairing Issy / Ossy isn’t a bad choice, however I feel that puts all the eggs in the ranged basked and I’m foreseeing a heavy anti ranged meta popping up…

Time will tell, I don’t have nearly enough games under my belt in MK3 to really draw conclusions and lot’s of list building and testing ahead of me.

My interest in Convergence was rekindled when I saw the faction being played at our local SR last month. I had made some attempts to build lists before but I couldn’t find real solutions or the lists didn’t really appeal to me.

The main problem in all of the list building was “what will my Cryx drop be” and “How do I make a Cryx drop which isn’t so narrow focused that it’s useless against most other factions.

When I saw Lucant combined with 2 battle engines tailored vs Cryx, but with options vs other factions / casters I saw something I hadn’t come up with at all.

I saw it paired up with Syntherion, and tested out both lists.

The Lucant list was ok on the Lucant + 2X Battle engine, but the other parts needed some tweaks. I switched around the heavy’s, changed the unit setup etc., and I now have a result that may be my final pick. The only issue is that I still need to run it vs Cryx a few times. Once I know how it carries out its main task, I can start looking for side options.

The Syntherion list was good, but I and Syntherion never really managed to click on a decent level, making it hard for me to play him. This meant I had 2 ways to continue, change the list to be more in line with my way of thinking / playing or switch to a different caster.

Syntherion is best played in tier and his playstyle isn’t something you can switch up dramatically, so keeping him in the running became problematic. This made me look towards other casters. Mother is powerful, however she isn’t my thing as such, Aurora doesn’t make the cut for me either. This is personal and by no means reflects their capabilities / power level.

With 1 caster picked (Lucant) and 3 others not making the cut, Axis was all that remained. He has potential for sure, I just hadn’t given him a chance (again because before I was looking for that anti-Cryx drop).

The first thing that came to mind was his tier list, because well it’s just bonkers. 4 foundries means 12 returning models each turn, which is huge. I’m slightly disappointed in the foundries when I compare them to Neurosurgeons, placement within 3″ would be much easier and prevent placement issues.

My version of the Axis theme force has such an amount of bodies it makes Cryx infantry spam look small at times. And ofc this is where the placement issues come in. If the field is completely full, adding more bodies can be problematic. 3″ placement would allow placing models in front of other models, while within 1 means nothing van be between the foundry and the target location.

Don’t get me wrong foundries are awesome, they could be straight up amazing with 3”.

As you can see lots of small based infantry everywhere. Their efficiëncy is higher than their medium based variants. (Personal opinion) And ofc the Axis theme doesn’t allow medium based units, and that makes the choice easier.

Both lists seem to have limited ranged capabilities, however sprays should not be underestimated. Both lists have enough recursion to take an Alfa strike to some degree. When the Alfa strike is received and blunted by recursion / high enough armor/ Def, and then followed up by POW 13 sprays, it feels like you were on the receiving end of an Alfa strike while you in fact launched the Alfa yourself.

The Axis tier list is a beauty. When you have advanced deployment for the bulk of your forces, it can be hard for your opponent to deploy based on your troop placement, as all you put down is a couple of jacks, foundries and a caster.

More on tactics and play experiences later, at this point is have just a few games played and while fun and successful those games contained a boatload of misplays on my end. The fact that with those mistakes it was a pleasant experience means it can only improve.

Now for the hobby side of things, having a list with 50 small based infantry models means you need 50 small based infantry models. Previous to my dabbling in Axis tier list experiments I owned 20 of those models, meaning I am currently working on 30 more.

I chose the normal Convergence paint scheme when I first started the faction, and I still like the way it looks, however I am thinking of repainting it all into something less standard.

No real idea what that will be like, I will be playing around with my airbrush once it arrives and then I’ll decide. Currently a Yellow scheme is winning me over.

As for right now I’m doing some major cleaning as Convergence models are still kings of flash and mold lines. I see improvements compared to the first batch I assembled, but it’s still way behind compared to the metal sculpts and other plastic sculpts I have painted up from the PP range.

When compared to the new plastic for the battle engine, it’s especially dire. The new plastic is wonderful, no flash or mold lines, I even assembled the entire model without a single drop of glue. Ofc I’ll have to glue it but this is really nice for painting, as I can assemble the model to check if there are some mold lines to be taken care of and I can paint the parts one by one.

I will receive my airbrush in the following weeks, so I am aiming to get better results when painting.

I also decided that having all those models meant I should do some small amount of converting.

Here are some pictures of how things look atm:

I gave my Reductors some more POW 13 looking weapons.

And since I was missing some regular heads and had spare leader heads, I decided to make the weapon the defining feature of the leading model.

You may have noticed the models I posted here also need to go through more cleaning. I have currently cleaned 8/32 models and I have been cleaning for hours. So yea it’ll take a while.

For the 2 new foundries, I wanted something special. I was looking into various types of tank treads but I couldn’t really find a set that wasn’t overpriced or required me to order overseas, which meant the import fee would make it overpriced.

The set I ended up using for the project contained both the weapons I used for the reductors and the tank treads for the foundries.

The result is different and I like it so far.

So the next few days (possibly weeks) I’ll spend cleaning up the infantry models. If the airbrush arrives soon, I’ll start doing some airbrush practice and hopefully I’ll be able to paint up a test model.

I’m currently at 3 games played with my Body & Soul tier list, and I like it. As far as list pairings go, Goreshade 3 // Denny2 is set in stone.

The main thing to look at when you play Cryx these days is all the anti-Cryx lists out there. As always “Cryx – different” and “Cryx harder” will be key in your list building.

If you just field a plain old Cryx list you will just get shot off the table and that’s that.

This is why this list pairing looks good for me. Goreshade3 with a Kraken and soul hunters deviates from the all small based models everywhere strategy and the Kraken won’t be removed by the same sea of pow 10 shots as the infantry spam would. Then there’s also Occultation adding stealth to the mix and the Blackbanes adding incorporeal.

The Denny list is the Body and Soul tier up till 4. If you have no or limited upkeep removal this list is bad news. It has the infantry spam, adding in lots of cheap models. (who should die so the mc thralls can grow in number)

Each of these lists can be countered with ease, however having a list that answers both is hard and having two lists where each is the direct counter is no small feat either.

If someone builds an anti Cryx list and it is a super infantry removal list, it’ll have a bad time vs. 3shade. Sure they may have an armor cracking list as their 2nd list, but does that list have an answer to stealth and incorporeal…

These elements greatly contribute to the whole list chicken aspect.

Now that’s just the pre game part of this list pairing. During the game the focus lies on what win conditions are possible and how available they are.

Assassination:

3Shade: This guy has such an amazing treat range. Add in an arc node and you pretty much can’t hide. This is also a bit of a trap when first playing the caster, as you really need to set things up the right way. When everything is set up just right it’s a truly beautiful work of art. Making a warcaster / warlock stationary, stealing the focus/fury left on the model and then shooting it with the Kraken or just charging is with the kraken works just fine to.

The option to remove fury using Siphon Bolt makes him a solid anti hordes drop for sure.

eDenny: What can I say it’s eDenny… On a serious note, assassination is an option, and you can certainly keep it on the table as an option so the other player knows he needs to watch where he moves his caster. But in essence this caster/ list is more oriented towards attrition and scenario play.

Aside from that she does have really nice options for assassination. Charging / walking up to a caster, teleporting them right in the charge path of Deathjack/ nightmare or a sea of mctralls, is always a nice option is just one example.

Attrition:

3Shade: The recursion rate within this list can be immense, this is however very match-up dependant. Anything that stops soul gathering for example makes the Soul Hunters less effective. The number of magic weapons also determines if Blackbane can commit or not. In an ideal scenario where the blackbanes can roam free and multiply and the soul hunters can do their hit’n’run things can go well on an absurd level.

Facing a list that has no answer to incorporeal and stealth and contains living models and makes it easy to remove models… yea that’s not really a combination that will dominate the meta. So realistically you’ll be able to make use of one or more factors but not all.

Mockery makes sure you can bring back bodies each turn. Ofc you need to make sure you don’t lose an entire unit. If the other player casts a spell in 3Shade’s control area you get a spell for free so even more Mockery.

The Soul hunters can go in and light cav out, adding the hit and run aspect to the list.

Having Rengrave along can make the blackbanes more accurate and it’s an extra shot as well.

eDenny: The drudges have tough so there’s a good chance that they stay around a bit longer, if they don’t corpse tokens are collected and extra mc thralls will come along the turn after. Being able to recycle the entire army and add more mctralls is a really nice recursion mechanic.

There are 2 variants at this point, 2 units of mctralls and 2 units of drudges (which is my choice atm) or 1 unit of mctralls and 3 units of drudges.

The reason I go with option 1 is simple, if the recursion works as intended and you don’t lose a ton of mctralls each turn, you are bound to end up with a ball of models that is simply too big to work, having 2 units solves this and also makes it harder to remove a unit completely early on and be rid of all recursion.

SO recursion is present in the list and it works out great, but that’s not all. The important pieces (overlords and surgeons) can sac to either drudges or mctralls, making them harder to remove and hopefully keeping them alive until they can shine.

Then there’s the offensive part of the attrition, sprays, sprays and more sprays, combined with the occasional hell mouth. The overlords each have an 8″ spray, the sirens also have an 8″ spray (with corrosion as a bonus), Deathjack can cast venom (more than once if he gets enough focus), and then there’s Denny herself. The overlords can target any model on the board for better placement of the spray templates (no line of sight required), and with Marked for death it’s possible to make a model/ unit targetable without los as well.

Because of the tier bonus, it is easy to achieve placement of the key upkeeps on enemy models (provided upkeep removal such as purification isn’t available)

The feat can help removing a large portion of the opposing army, which can be a powerful attrition tool. It is better used with other goals in mind, but the added attrition value is a great bonus either way.

Scenario:

3Shade: It’s certainly possible to treat the scenario and to force the opposing players hand in doing so. 3Shade has a huge treat and the list can be super fast when needed, meaning a reposition for scenario isn’t all that hard.

I never feel like I’m going to go for the scenario when I field the caster, there’s too many options going on with regards to attrition and setting up the assassination.

Posing a threat on both scenario and assassination while staying ahead in attrition is ofc the perfect place to be, but at my level of experience that is rather hard to attain.

Huge treat range do have a large “Gotcha” factor where an opponent might not see your caster getting to a flag to dominate or may think your models won’t ever reach their objective / clear the zone.

I think scenario is the less likely win condition for 3Shade unless the opposing player allows you to take up a strong scenario position.

A win with 5 scenario points is always better than a win with 0 scenario points. This simply because if 2 players have won the same amount of games and their strength of schedule is equal, then the next tie breaker is on scenario points.

In short, take what points you can while hunting for a good assassination run.

eDenny: Well, they call her the queen of scenario play, so this is what she does best. Her feat adds most of the value as it pretty much costs the opposing player a turn. If the opposing player has more experience against eDenny then setting up the feat and keeping her safe are pretty complicated.

The basic setup is to wait for the opposing army to close in, then move up with Denny, (pref incorp so not every gun on the field is able to shoot her), then pop feat. Key things to remember are that the feat doesn’t prevent models from aiming, and place effects are also still allowed.

Keeping Denny safe from attacks during her feat is the most important element in the games you play with her. Often when you play your feat just right, the opposing player will have no choice other than assassination in order to prevent a loss. Denny by herself is fragile and can’t stand much of a breeze. Even when she’s on full camp her armor isn’t high enough to withstand serious beatings.

If you manage to get enough points during the feat turn and can keep scoring the turn after (opponent can’t assassinate and is unable to contest because models are under the effects of the feat), then you win on scenario.

Examples would be, destroy objective (1point), dominate enemy zone (2 points), then dominate the turn after and go to 5.

This is exactly what makes Denny a scenario powerhouse. However as I stated before, you are not the only one who knows how she operates and more experienced players will see this coming a mile away. There are lists that don’t have an answer and there are lists that were built to have the perfect answer. The latter make it pretty hard on a Denny player with limited experience.

That being said even when things look pretty grim Denny can still pull a rabbit or 2 out of her hat and save the day, she has an amazing set of spells to help with that.

Conclusion: Both casters lend themselves to go for either win condition, which provided an amount of freedom. In general I feel 3Shade is better vs. hordes, where Denny takes care of certain Warmachine lists. The approach what Cryx can do in a different way, different enough to make the opponent contemplate if he should take the dedicated anti-Cryx list or not.

They have overlap and unique elements so that an answer isn’t always easy to find and even if the answer is there I may still pick the other list, potentially making that answer useless.

I hope I can manage to get more games before the tourney at the end of the month, and ofc that I can keep using this pairing for a while without the need to mix things up.

Last week on Thursday I went to Antwerp to visit the guys from “the puppeteers” gameclub.

I talked about upping my game time in a previous post, and adding a game night should help steer me towards my goal. Also having different players to practice with from different meta’s etc.

I arrived quit a bit later than I expected, so one game was all I could squeeze in, but it was a good game. Well “good” might not be the most fitting word for it, as my play sure had lots of holes in it, but it was fun.

I had the privilege of playing a game with Jonah, who is an outstanding guy. He brought his Menoth and fielded Feora with a bonded Judicator. I myself had Goreshade 3 with a Kraken on my end of the table.

It was my real attempt at fielding a 3shade list, and if you hadn’t noticed I just copied the list Tom Guan uses, because it’s a solid pick. Netlisting, or using lists other player’s assembled, is a good habit when starting your play experience with a new caster / faction.

The scenario we rolled on was “Recon” a new scenario in the SR 2015 pack.

We both chose the “Bunker” objective. For those who are not yet familiar with the changes in SR 2015, you now get to choose one of 6 objectives, which you have to add to each of your lists.

We rolled off and he won the roll. He opted to go first, I got to choose the table edge. The scenario has a central zone, with an objective on either side, this means that the objective itself is making it hard for a colossal to move straight into the zone, if the colossal is deployed dead center.

On side had a hill directly in between the objective and the deployment zone, the other had a house. The house was not in between like the hill, but more to the side, which would impact deployment for huge based models for sure. The side with the hill also had a forest which would provide an ideal hiding spot for my ghost raiders.

I opted to take the side with the hill, having some extra def can never hurt, and it made the deployment and first turn movement for the other player harder.

Turn 1 for my opponent consisted of running up with the entire army. His forces remained in the center, the flame guard up front in order to start shield walling the turns after and keeping the forces behind protected.

I feel this is also where the larger mistake was made in my opponents game. His Judicator was deployed behind the objective and ran straight forward, and was surrounded with troops. This meant that the only purpose for the Judicator would be limited to a very expensive rocket launcher. The Judicator is ofc also a very good rocket launcher so it didn’t side line the model, however it severely limited the treat the model could have and meant it would not participate in any melee action any time soon.

This also gave me a slight advantage on scenario as he wasn’t going to remove his own objective in order to allow the Judicator to get into the zone.

My first turn I ran the blackbanes behind the forest, keeping them safe from the Judicator and any other possible ranged treats. The soul hunters ran up the hill in hopes of staying safe with higher def. The scarlock placed occultation on the soul hunters, and also moved onto the hill.

Darrag used Death ride after moving onto the side of the hill and used light cav for better positioning. Soul hunters and gshade moved their 1″.

Aiakos moved forward and cast Escort. (1 was allocated to the Kraken).The Kraken moved up towards the hill in order to move more towards the center zone. As I move the first 2 inches, I notice I might actually be able to land a pretty decent shot with the main gun on the Flame guard.Flame guard who are not in shield wall and not under their mini-feat.

Once in place the Kraken takes a shot with the main gun at the center of the Flameguard. Using it’s 1 focus to boost to hit, and the shot lands, covering 5 models of the unit with the 4″ template. The model directly hit, is an auto kill, for the other 4 I need 7’s. My dice decided to help me out for a change, I rolled 3 7’s and and 8, removing all 4 models with blast damage.

SO far so good, bottom turn 1 and I already have removed half a unit, with one shot.

Top of 2, my opponent shield walls the flame guard and pops their mini feat. He also has a pretty good round of shooting with the Judicator, and ends up removing 2 Soul Hunters and leaving 2 more on fire. This balances out my lucky rolls on the Kraken shot.

The rest of his army is either to far away for melee actions, or lacking magical weapons in order to have any effect on the Blackbanes. The remaining Soul Hunters had Occultation so shooting them was not an option either.

Bottom of 2 I try to fabricate one of those amazing 3shade assassinations using the feat and I fail horribly. The arcnode doesn’t get where it needs to be, I forget about the mini feat on Flameguard and realize they can’t be made stationary, etc, etc. I charge my Kraken in with Scyting Touch and Dark Shroud, and I end up being slightly less than 1″ short…sad moment.

Still having stationary models all over does screw up focus management for my opponent, so it’s not an easy clean up turn after a feat gone wrong. Plus Darrag has 3shade in his magic bubble so damage will be reduced.

4 flameguard make it up to 3shade with charges, they do about 4 damage total. The avatar has fun with the Kraken removing almost an entire grid.(1 box left on the right grid)

Aiakos dies to an average roll on blast damage after a Judicator shot misses and deviates… this guys is awesome but it would be handy if he was easier to keep alive than a scrap thrall.

SO bottom of 3, no focus for Kraken, so I do damage to avatar but it only cripples on arm. I decide to go for that scenario point and charge 3shade into the objective. hitting sure isn’t a problem, my damage rolls on the other hand were the bare minimum.

I did 6 damage on the charge and didn’t manage to break armor on the 3 attack I bought after, which is just sad really. But dice are dice, sometimes they help, sometimes they don’t.

The game evolves into a grind fest where neither of us actually gets and advantage over the other, and my opponent decides to forfait because he really wants to head home and call it a night.

Action shot:

Hobby news

I have finished the last model for my Skorne list pairing so I get to take it easy when it comes to painting for a while.

I decided that I want to have 3shade and Mortenebra painted up so those will be my next project. It’s a good chance to find out if my painting skill has improved, since I will be revisiting my Cryx paint scheme and I have painted numerous models since I last used it.

I must say assembling Morty was an adventure, the model itself looks really nice, in fact her and 3shade are my top picks for best looking caster models when I comes to Cryx.

When Drilling the holes for pinning I had a slight accident, I managed to slip and the drill ended up in my thumb, red liquid everywhere. Dremel means it’s faster, however if you slip it can do more damage for sure. I suppose it’s fitting that Cryx models are bathed in blood right?

New Tech

I recently installed a new app called “Steam Genius”. It’s an app designed for us IOS user out there who want to keep track of their warmahordes game results.

A similar app existed for android but there was never a variant for IOS, so Steam Genius covers that now. I have recorded 1 battle so far, I’ll do an article on it once I have more experiences with the app. I can add so far that it runs really smooth.

I’ll be in Antwerp tomorrow and In Aalst on Friday, hopefully I get to have a nice number of games and I’ll be able to write up my experiences here next week.